GE promotes solar panels at Super Bowl

A new campaign for General Electric's 'smart grid' technology is in the news.

At the Super Bowl, GE will air spots on the themes of Scarecrow and Wizard of Oz  supporting its eco-friendly electric grid technology, which aims to increase access to renewable energy, improve efficiency and win savings for consumers on energy bills.

1 February marked the launch of an informational web site, PlugintotheSmartGrid.com, which features an augmented reality component that allows users to interact with digital holograms without downloading software.

The site, from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, explains how the Smart Grid works in and out of consumers' homes, as well as it's impact on environmental issues, like carbon dioxide emissions and alternative energy usage.

Users can manipulate 3D models of wind and solar power using only a webcam and a solar panel marker, a distinct symbol that will activate the hologram. (The marker will run on GE print ads, can be printed off the site or pulled up on an iPhone screen.) To launch the augmented reality, users hold the marker up to face the webcam and can then watch it unfold into a 3D hologram on-screen.

To interact with the hologram, users can rotate or move the marker or blow into the microphone to increase the animation speed. Goodby, with North Kingdom, created the completely Flash-based feature with open source code that was then adapted so anyone with a computer and webcam could experience it.

The site and Super Bowl work are part of an umbrella campaign that posits GE as "innovation you don't have to wait for." The multimedia campaign covers GE healthcare, global research and ecomagination, under which green tech like the Smart Grid falls.

The Super Bowl spot, above, from long-time GE agency BBDO, New York, director Traktor and animation company Framestore is an animated update of "If I Only Had A Brain," from the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz."

BBDO also created web films "Pluck" and "Listen to the Smart Grid" to explain how the grid works, as well as print ads that will debut on Wednesday in the New York General Electric plans to air a "Wizard of Oz"-themed ad during Super Bowl promoting its smart grid technology, building on its Ecomagination campaign.